Good morning, friends! One last day before we kiss the sweet month of April good-bye: it’s Tuesday the 30th, and Portland’s weather is the perfect sunny-and-70 partnership that we yearn for all winter. Sunrise 6:00 AM Sunset 8:16 PM.
Denver prevailed over the Blazers 121-113 in Game One, in a contest where the Nuggets put their focus on stopping Damian Lillard, and he scored 39 points anyway. But Damian says the reason his team lost was turnovers: “That was a huge part of it. I know I had six myself,” Lillard said. “As much as I have the ball, I’m responsible for valuing possessions. On the road, against a team that plays much faster, much better at home, especially when they get out in transition and shoot 3s and get the ball moving, just gave them too many opportunities. Twenty-three points off turnovers, that’s always going to hurt you.”
A note from Twitter: “The @trailblazers announce radio play-by-play voice Brian Wheeler will take a personal leave of absence for the rest of the NBA playoffs.” No further details, and our very best to Wheelers, and to Travis Demers, who takes his place. Sounded terrific last night.
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Mayor Ted Wheeler delivered the State of the City address in a live video feed last night. We’re on the right track, he said. He touted the partnership with Multnomah County as a beginning in taming the crisis of homelessness. He detailed the complexity of the solutions before an unappreciative audience of Facebook viewers whose scoffs and jabs flowed by in real time. Which made me wonder if Wheeler might be as eager for this ordeal to end as every mayor since Vera Katz, and as he’s occasionally seemed. But not this time. “Being mayor is not easy. I was never under the illusion it would be,” he said. “But it is by far the most meaningful work of my life. This is my life’s work.”
We’ll learn more today, but Police Chief Danielle Outlaw says it appears that officers “acted quickly and heroically to save lives” when they rescued a baby, then fatally shot a suspect who had stabbed four people in an outer-Southeast apartment before dawn yesterday.
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An Army veteran of the war in Afghanistan is jailed for allegedly planning to nail-bomb an LA-area white supremacist rally as revenge for the New Zealand mosque shootings. A recent convert to Islam, the suspect’s alleged co-conspirator turned out to be an FBI agent.
The family of the young man accused in the San Diego-area synagogue shooting suspect released a public apology last night, saying: “To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.”
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Important to know, especially if you’ve recently moved: today is the voter registration deadline for the May 21 election in many Oregon communities, where seats on local school and community college boards are up for grabs, along with other issues of a down-to-the-zip-code nature. We may rightfully rail at the eminences who strut on the national stage, but it’s the folks we’ll elect on May 21 that have their hands on our taxes, our kids, and most of the problems we complain about. So if you’ve moved since the last election and you want your voice heard on your new city council, make sure you’ve updated your registration by today.
A pilot and passenger were killed when a homebuilt plane crashed into a marsh south of La Center. The wreckage was spotted by another pilot, who circled the scene while providing directions to first responders.
It’s supposedly a one-month trial…but you can sense that it’s only the start…PSU is turning the one-block stretch of SW Montgomery between 6th and Broadway into a pedestrian plaza, complete with street art, planters, seating, and lighting. Call me a dreamer…but I think it’s the beginning of there being no traffic at all through the heart of campus.
Remember Mike Myers? No, not the “Wayne’s World” party-on guy–the former Portland Fire Chief, who surprised everyone by retiring and moving to Cannon Beach? He’s un-retiring and coming back to lead the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
Prolific hitmaker and survivor Ariana Grande is at the Moda Center tonight. With a Beatles-like lock on the pop charts, chances are any Uber you jump into will have her on the radio, on Z100 or Jammin’ 107.5. Tonight the arena will be filled to the ceiling with fans showering love on the young woman for her music, and for the person she’s become after all that she’s been through, including the Manchester concert that was attacked by a terrorist last time she was on tour. I’ve read the reviews; people will love this show.
Groundbreaking director John Singleton was only 51 when he died yesterday, after suffering a major stroke over a week ago.
In his final despicable act, Adolf Hitler deprived the civilized world of the justice that only a trial could bring by killing himself on this day in 1945.
Saigon fell on this day in 1975.
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Good news here!
–“Kidnapping averted as 8-year-old ‘hero’ pulls sister from moving car”
–“Chicagoan pulled over to check out an accident scene and ended up delivering donated organs”
–“Stranger pays for prom dinner for 11 students on one (good) condition”
–“Greatest doctor ever!”
–“Couple Thinks They Adopted A Mini-Pig, Keeps Her As A Pet Even After It Grows To Be 650 Lbs”
Portland's Daily Drip 